Waiting
by stella-pegasi
Summary: SGA-1 runs into some trouble on an off-world mission. One of the team is missing and it is not just the Atlantis expedition members who are waiting for word. There is another who waits as well.


**Title: Waiting…**

**Author: **stella_pegasi

**Rating: **K+ (Whump)

**Spoilers: **Mention of circumstances in _Childhood's End_**.**

**Summary:** SGA-1 runs into some trouble on an off-world mission. One of the team is missing and it is not just the Atlantis expedition members who are waiting for word. There is another who waits as well.

John S. / Rodney M. / Teyla E. / Ronon D. / E. Lorne / Carson B. / R. Woolsey /J. Keller / assorted Atlantis personnel / original characters. Rated K+ (Some whump to the ones we love.) Complete.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own them; I would have treated them better.

**Notes: **I had forgotten about this story, I wrote it quite a while back and just found it saved in the wrong file. There be whump here…or at least the aftermath of whump.

**Waiting …**

_He was late. He had been late before, sometimes for a very long time. She had endured waiting for him on numerous occasions but when he was not here, she felt incomplete. _

_Their relationship had been tenuous at first. He was hesitant and unsure of what he was feeling, what he was sensing. She responded to him immediately when he first arrived; reading his thoughts and granting his wishes instantaneously. She grew excited when she felt his presence and so anxious to show him all the wonders that only she could reveal. _

_She felt his strength, his mind capable of much more than he realized. She had not felt the need to serve or have such a purpose to exist in a very long time. Unfortunately, she was weak. She was unable to react to him the way she wanted; unable to show him all that she could offer, the knowledge that she had acquired, the technology at her disposal. Yet as time passed, they had grown closer, as they began to understand each other. She felt a rush of elation when he returned to her after he had been away._

_This day, however, he was late._

The gate activated without warning. As Richard Woolsey, Commander of the Atlantis Expedition, rushed from his office to investigate, he heard Sergeant Chuck Campbell, the gate technician on duty, announce "Unscheduled off-world activation. Shield up." From the gate room below, he could hear the gate detail squad leader order her team to defensive positions.

"Is there an IDC?" Woolsey asked. Chuck looked up and shook his head no. "Are any teams due back now?" Woolsey continued.

No, sir; only two teams out, Colonel Sheppard's team is checking out a possible ancient outpost on a new planet and Lt. Stackhouse's team is on PMX-159 on a trade mission. We aren't expecting Stackhouse's team to check in for a couple more hours, However, SGA-1 is approximately an hour late, normal for them; I was about to inform you." Chuck's computer beeped and he quickly looked back at the screen, "Mr. Woolsey, I am getting Dr. McKay's IDC."

Woolsey ordered the shield down and, heart pounding, he quickly moved to the balcony railing; Colonel Sheppard's team returning late with no explanation usually meant one thing, trouble.

The Marines had to scatter as the team emerged through the gate. They didn't simply walk through the gate; the team plunged through the top of the event horizon. One of the Marines was standing in the wrong place and Ronon fell directly onto him, both sliding across the floor. Teyla's head slammed into the tile floor first and she landed on her side, not moving; McKay fell almost straight down from the top of the gate. Ronon attempted to get up from where he landed but his leg gave out and he fell back to the floor. Only Dr. McKay managed to pick himself up but he was holding his side and nearly doubled over, pain evident on his face.

Looking back at the stargate just as the shimmering pool collapsed, Dr. McKay found himself staring at the large stained glass window behind the gate. It took a few seconds for McKay to realize that someone missing, a very important someone. Colonel Sheppard had not followed them through the gate.

McKay's breathing was becoming more labored and erratic and the searing pain in his side was clouding his thinking. The colonel was missing; they had to mount a rescue, get Marines, and find him, didn't anyone understand? Through the fog that was descending on his brain, he could see Woolsey standing on the control room balcony and he yelled to him, "Woolsey, dial the gate back, Sheppard was with us, something must have stopped him. We have to go back!"

Desperation was building in McKay, someone needed to listen to him. Didn't they understand that Sheppard was missing and they had to find him? He tried to think but the pain was fogging his brain, he had to get help to go back for the colonel. Ronon, that's it, he had to find Ronon; Ronon would help find Sheppard but where was he? He searched the gate room and found the big Satendan rolling on the floor holding his leg, pain etched across his face. Teyla was lying nearby, motionless, and his heart froze as he feared she was…no, he couldn't think that.

Finally, McKay spotted Major Lorne running into the gate room. "Lorne, the colonel was with us, he's in trouble; we have to go back!" McKay wavered and began to fall; Lorne managed to catch him as he was about to hit the gate room floor. He lowered the Atlantis scientist gently onto the tile. "Don't worry doc, we'll go back and we'll find him.

The wheels on the gurneys rattled as the medical team raced into the gate room. Rodney relaxed a bit when Dr. Jennifer Keller's face appeared above him; smiling at him, she assured him everything would be fine. Rodney thought, 'Fine, no, nothing would be fine until they found out what happened to Sheppard.' That was his last thought as he succumbed to the darkness.

_She was patient; waiting for his return was not new to her but this feeling of loneliness when he was away was even stronger than she had experienced when the others had left her. Before, when she was active and full of energy, she interacted with so many like him. She had flirted with their needs, granting even their smallest wishes. However, only one mind at a time could become her muse and touch her as strongly as he did, although all of the others before could communicate with her. Now, he was her muse and while there were other's who could sense her, none could interact with her at the level he could. _

_He was special; his mind innocent, not clouded by the pride and overconfidence that the others had whispered to her so long before. He focused on his responsibilities; his overpowering and only need was to protect her and those who were with him. She had felt his fear and his strength to control it, his grief when one of the others was lost, and his guilt when he could not protect them. It was the guilt she did not understand; he had always done everything possible to save every life. This emotion had made her feel uncertain about how to reach him, how to help him, and this was a feeling that she had not experienced before he came._

_When he was gone, she discovered that her desire to please the others and fulfill their needs diminished. Once, while on a trade mission, slavers kidnapped him and the others did not find him for nearly two months. She had never experienced the sensation of being worried until that time and she found she could not concentrate. The one with the extremely developed brain and the little one with the eye device and strange way of speaking had suspected when the power outages and other anomalies started occurring that she was distracted with worry about him. The little one described her as "cranky"; but she was simply lonely._

Shortly after Sheppard's teammates returned, Woolsey and Lorne headed toward the infirmary as they discussed a rescue mission. Arriving, they found Doctors' Keller, Beckett and Jackson working on the injured team members; the entire trauma area appeared to be in chaos but Woolsey knew it was highly organized chaos. Keller looked up, nodded to them, and held up two fingers to let them know she would talk to them in a couple of minutes. She was tending to Teyla; Dr. Beckett was working on McKay; Dr. Jackson was attempting to help Ronon, who wanted out of the infirmary to find Sheppard. As Keller walked toward Woolsey and Lorne, she stopped and spoke to each of the other doctors.

"How are your patients, doctor?" Woolsey asked as she approached.

She drew a deep breath, "Teyla has a very serious concussion, she hasn't regained consciousness but there no bleeding or severe bruising on her brain. I suspect she will wake up soon. She also has some very bad bruises on her back, arms, and legs. Rodney suffered two broken ribs and deep bruises on his arms, chest, and back. He was having difficulty breathing when we got to him. The broken ribs caused a pneumothorax but we've inserted a chest tube to evacuate the air and he is breathing much better."

She looked over at Rodney for a second and then turned back to the two waiting men. "Ronon broke his left tibia just above the ankle when he fell through the gate and impacted the floor, healing will take about six weeks. The Marine he landed on, Corporal Miere, has some nasty bruises but only had the wind knocked out of him. I have released him to quarters. Ronon suffered bruises from the same type weapon as Rodney and Teyla. I asked Doctor Biro to examine their bruises to determine what might have caused them. She speculated that the bruises were caused by some sort of flat object that is wide at one end and then tapers down to a narrower end. They are also showing some kind of neural imbalance; we're running tests now." Keller paused, glancing at Ronon.

"Ronon refused treatment at first; he is demanding to go on the rescue mission. Dr. Jackson gave him something to calm him down and got a bruised jaw for his efforts."

Woolsey, looking concerned, asked, "Do you need a security team to keep an eye on Ronon?"

She let a quick smile cross her face but she shook her head no. "I don't think that will be necessary. Ronon has problems with sitting idly by when one of his team is in danger, more so if it's Sheppard. Dr. Beckett talked to him and was able to calm him down; Beckett seems to have a way with the big guy. I believe he will be OK now, especially since we have some pain meds and a bit of a sedative in him."

"Is he lucid enough to talk to us with those drugs in his system, doctor? We need find out what happened on that planet." Major Lorne used his most persuasive manner to try and charm the doctor into letting them talk to her patient but he knew that even Colonel Sheppard's charm did not get very far with Dr. Keller.

"He's awake but he has had pain meds in addition to the anti-anxiety drug so he may be a bit groggy. You can talk to him but only for a few minutes."

As they approached the bed, Ronon was alert and looking fiercely at them, "Woolsey, get me out of here now, I need to go after Sheppard."

Major Lorne spoke up, "Ronon, there is nothing I would want more than for you to go with us but you're a liability right now; you have a broken leg, you can't walk, and you are on pain meds. You need to trust us, we want our CO back as much as you want your friend back. I promise we'll find the colonel and bring him home. Are you up to telling us what happened?"

Ronon stared at Lorne for a few seconds and then began to tell them. "It was a twenty minute walk from the gate to the town. The place was bigger than most of the villages we normally visit. We were surprised that the town had a great deal of Ancient tech every where but McKay said that most of it wasn't working. Some of it did activate when Sheppard simply walked by; pissed McKay off every time. Sheppard and Teyla went to find whoever was in charge and I stayed with McKay. He scanned the area and found a weak energy signal; he radioed Sheppard who told him to check it out and report back." Ronon shifted on the bed and grimaced as he jarred his broken leg.

"We walked to the edge of town where the signal was coming from and found a big building that was definitely of Ancient design. Rodney was able to bridge the door control and we went inside. There was a lot of Ancient tech, consoles and stuff like that, in a huge chamber but there weren't any people there. Rodney got excited and started running toward a room that was off the other side of the chamber, that's where he found the ZPM but it was pretty much out of power." Ronon took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a minute.

"Rodney and I both tried to contact Sheppard to tell him about the ZPM but we didn't get a response. We tried both Sheppard and Teyla and we couldn't raise either one of them; I told Rodney we needed to go check on them. As we started to leave, about ten guys armed with some kind of weird weapons ran into the room. I tried to fight them so that McKay could get away but they had some kind of big, flat metal thing that they hit us with and they were good at using the damn thing. The weapon left a sharp sting where it hit and after several hits, my muscles wouldn't work well. They also had pistol-like weapons that shot a blue beam of some sort. They used the pistols when they first came in; the shot stung like the flat things."

Lorne and Woolsey exchanged looks, both realizing that Dr. Biro had been right about the weapon. Woolsey asked, "What happened next?"

Dr. Jackson, sporting a fairly good sized bruise on his jaw, walked over interjecting. "The weapon he's talking about is what Dr. Biro deduced from examining their wounds." Woolsey nodded and Jackson continued, "Best we can tell, these weapons are electrically charged and interrupt the nerve impulses between the muscles and the brain. It also inflicts some pretty nasty injuries; those bruises are very deep."

Ronon grunted an agreement with the doctor's description of the weapons and continued. "They took us into the town center to a big building and shoved us into the room where Teyla and Sheppard were being held. They had quite a few bruises on them as well. Some guy came in, Sheppard called him counselor, think he was the leader. He started asking a lot of questions about where we came from and why Sheppard had the gene."

"The gene; is that what this is about, why they attacked you? They want Colonel Sheppard for his ATA gene?" Woolsey asked.

"Yeah, I think so. They used those paddle things on all of us to get Sheppard to tell them why the ancients had left and where had they gone. You know Sheppard, he wouldn't talk, so they got pissed off and took him away. Whey they brought him back a couple of hours later, he had a lot more bruises and he was unconscious. They threw him into the room and he hit a table as he fell, cutting his face. Teyla managed to stop the bleeding but she thought he needed stitches. Another two hours passed and the counselor came back, told us they were taking us back to Atlantis. They put us in a jumper."

Lorne reacted with surprise, "A jumper?" Ronon nodded, "Yeah, a jumper but it wasn't in very good shape and the pilot didn't seem to be too good at flying it. He made McKay look good." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Woolsey and Lorne chuckled at Ronon's comments on Dr. McKay's flying prowess.

Ronon continued, "Rodney told them that Atlantis wouldn't let them through but when we got to the gate, they forced McKay to dial Atlantis. They threatened to kill Sheppard if he didn't. We thought they were going to come through the gate but they just backed the jumper up to the gate and pushed us out the hatch. Sheppard was still out cold so a couple of Lovans picked him up from the floor. I thought they were going to throw him through the gate; but they didn't, they kept him." Ronon's hands clenched tightly as if he wanted to hit something but there was nothing to hit.

Woolsey looked at Lorne, "So we can assume they have our gate address, which could present a problem. Major, you have a go; bring the colonel back." Woolsey placed his hand on Ronon's shoulder, "Thanks, Ronon, get some rest. We'll get him back."

As they turned to leave, Ronon called out to Lorne. "Major?" Lorne looked back at the big man. Ronon very quietly said, "I do trust you." Lorne smiled and gave Ronon a nod and left the infirmary.

_She had observed the others many times before, while they waited for him, how they would not stop searching for him. At times he or they would come back through the gate injured and they would sit with the injured one in the healing place until that one was well. They never realized that she was there waiting with them. This day, she kept watch over his team since he could not._

The control room was quiet but there was tension the air. Richard Woolsey felt anxiety building inside him but he was attempting to remain calm, at least outwardly. As he looked around the room he could tell that everyone was feeling the same way. He was standing next to Chuck, at the gate tech's station, staring at the dialing device as if he could will the stargate to activate. Major Lorne's team and two other teams gated to the planet in a jumper and had been off-world for nearly two and a half hours. They were not due to contact Atlantis with an update for another thirty minutes. It had only been three hours since the colonel had gone missing but it felt like an eternity.

When the gate activated twenty minutes early, the control room personnel held their breath, hopeful that the teams would be returning with Colonel Sheppard. However, all they heard was an agitated voice who identified himself as Lieutenant Dawkins; his message was not what they had hoped to hear. "Atlantis, this is Lt. Dawkins, we are under attack; Major Lorne was captured about an hour ago, bogies did not try to take anyone else; do not know Colonel Sheppard's status; Corporal Schuster and Sergeant Brown and I have fallen back to the gate, to defend our guys when they return, Major Teldy and the remaining teams have gone after Lorne and Sheppard in the jumper. Will stay out of sight and if possible, will dial again in one hour, Dawkins out."

The gate shut down and silence again filled the control room. Woolsey walked over to the balcony railing and looked into the gate room. He saw the Marines on duty looking up at him; they didn't have to ask, there no question that they wanted to go help in the rescue. Woolsey acknowledged their unspoken request and quietly said to the Marines, "Let's trust Major Teldy's expertise and give them time. If we don't hear from them in one hour, then we will send you in." The Marines in the gate room nodded and turned back to guard the gate.

_She divided her attention between the healing place and the control room. She was pleased to see that the one with the big brain was resting well; the large man was quiet and did not seem to be in danger. She was concerned about the small woman who remained so still, she knew that while he cared a great deal for all of them, this one was special to him. The healers stayed by this member of his team and she could sense worry from those she could touch. She yearned for those from before who could heal or the ability to show the ones here now how to deal with the small woman's injury but her weakness prevented her assistance._

_From the control room, she felt the tension rising. Now there were others in danger; others that he cared about who were looking for him. She found herself unsettled; she could not help and she could not protect them. She could only wait for all of them to return._

Silence had again settled over the control room, Woolsey had retreated to his office and everyone else was at their duty stations trying to look busy but glancing at the stargate more and more frequently as they waited for word from Lt. Dawkins. He had contacted Jennifer to see how the colonel's team was doing; she reported that Teyla was still unconscious but stable, Rodney was sleeping, and predictably, Ronon was agitated and impatient but she would update him on what was happening. Woolsey had to admit he was feeling the same way Ronon did; not knowing what was happening to the off-world teams and not being able to do anything was unnerving to say the least.

When he was with the IOA he had never anticipated the stress that he found himself under as the leader of the Atlantis expedition. He had once been able to hide behind rules and regulations; dissecting events after the fact. Living on Atlantis had exposed him to feelings and fears that he had never experienced before and forced him to make decisions he had thought impossible for him to make. As he looked out on the men and women who depended on him for guidance, he wondered if he was up to the task. Shortly, he may have to send even more of these brave people into danger to save their comrades; it was a decision he did not want to make.

From the gate room, the sound of the stargate beginning to activate brought a new rush of emotion; Chuck's voice resonated as he stated, "Unauthorized off-world gate activation." Woolsey found himself running to Chuck's station. The Marines in the gate room had assumed a defense perimeter around the gate. Everyone waited for Chuck to tell them who was dialing Atlantis.

"Mr. Woolsey, I am receiving Lt. Dawkin's IDC."

"Lieutenant, what's your status?" Woolsey nervously waited for his reply.

"Sir, we have Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne; we will need a med team; we have injuries. We are clear here; permission to come through the gate, sir."

"Permission granted, lieutenant, get your people home." Woolsey backed up and leaned against the console behind him, he needed support to keep him on his feet. Chuck was smiling and had already called for the med team to the jumper bay from the hallway where they had been waiting.

The sight of the jumper bursting through the event horizon caused cheers from the Marines in the gate room and the control room staff. Woolsey ran up the stairs to the jumper bay to determine who was injured and how badly; the colonel's injuries of grave concern. He arrived in time to see two Marines gently lay Colonel Sheppard onto a gurney. Another Marine was supporting Major Lorne who seemed to be dizzy and disoriented but was refusing to get on a gurney. Dr. Jackson decided for him and, despite Lorne's protest, the Marine helped the major lay down. Woolsey heard Dr. Jackson tell Lorne he was getting more like Sheppard every day; the Atlantis director chuckled knowing Lorne would no doubt take that as a compliment. The medical staff placed the two other injured Marines onto gurneys. Major Teldy and the Marines remaining on the jumper disembarked and joined Woolsey. They stood silently as the medical teams quickly disappeared down the hallway, ushering the four injured men away. Once the injured were gone, Woolsey called Major Teldy to his office to give her report.

_He was back. His mind was not yet able to connect with hers but she could sense he was back. She followed him into the healing place and waited._

Several hours had passed as they waited for Colonel Sheppard to wake up. Teyla had regained consciousness for a short time and Dr. Keller felt she was going to be fine, just needed a lot of rest. Rodney was alert and breathing much better. Ronon had insisted on sitting next to Sheppard's bed and was in a wheelchair between Sheppard and the bed where Major Lorne was resting.

The colonel apparently had been subjected to many more blows from the paddle weapon than the others. His arms, legs, and torso were covered with very large, deep, dark black and purple bruises. Rodney had described the feeling when struck by the paddle-shaped weapon like sticking a finger in a light socket. The electrical charge seemed to interrupt signals from the brain to muscles and after a while, confusion and lack of muscle control incapacitated the victim.

Dr. Keller and Dr. Beckett were standing next to the colonel's bed when Mr. Woolsey returned to the infirmary. "Doctors, how is he?"

Beckett, who had been listening to the colonel's breathing, removed the stethoscope from his ears and arranged the blanket back over Sheppard's chest. "The colonel was in a bad way when he got here. His heart was beating rapidly and his breathing was erratic, most likely from the repeated hits of the electrical current. He's breathing better now and his heart had been in normal rhythm for the last hour. I think he's going to be fine once his brain chemistries come back to normal;" Beckett looked at the monitor by Sheppard's bed, "he seems to be in regular sleep rhythm now. He has a nasty cut beside his left ear but Dr. Jackson is a good sewer; if there is a scar, it will hardly be noticeable once it fully heals."

"When do you think he will wake up?" Beckett shook his head and Dr. Keller answered Woolsey.

"We don't know and we are not going to push him. They all suffered neural trauma from the shocks and they need to rest. We have given them all drugs to help equalize the chemical imbalance but they need to recover as naturally as possible. They are going to need considerable rest and possibly physical therapy for the deep bruises to their muscles."

"Mr. Woolsey?"

They all turned toward Major Lorne's bed. The major was struggling to sit up and one of the nurses closer to his bed rushed over to try and keep him still.

Dr. Keller quickly moved to the major's side. "Major, how are you feeling?"

"Groggy and really sore, ma'am; but I'm ok. How's the colonel?"

Woolsey shook his head, a small smile appearing as he thought about this amazing group of people. No matter how injured they were themselves, the first question they always asked when they woke up was how the others were doing, especially if the colonel was among the injured.

The question wasn't lost on Keller either; she smiled at the major and told him that the colonel was doing fine and would recover and that the two marines who were injured were going to be fine as well. Then she gave him a quick examination and told him that after he spoke with Mr. Woolsey, he needed to rest. Woolsey approached the bed as Lorne sank back into the pillows and sighed. The major looked over at Sheppard, lying in the bed next to him, so still and so pale underneath the bruises.

"They were brutal to him; they kept hitting him with that paddle, all over his body. The colonel couldn't move but he refused to answer their questions. The counselor came over to me while they were continuing to interrogate and beat Sheppard and told me that the colonel had caused a lot of the ancient tech to activate by simply walking into town, tech that hadn't worked in many, many years. That place was full of Ancient consoles, machines; one sitting in the center of town even looked like the shield device on that planet with the kids. It looked like the entire town had been part of an ancient outpost or settlement. But instead of being happy that someone could help them use the tech, they were angry."

Lorne closed his eyes for a second and then continued. "These guys thought the colonel and I were Ancients. That's why they took us and not any of the others, even the ones that had the gene artificially. They demanded Sheppard tell them why the Lantian's had deserted them, leaving them at the mercy of the Wraith.

"For some reason, the counselor told me a bit about their history. They were a highly advanced race called the Lovans and had developed a very strong relationship with the Ancients; some of their people even became romantically involved with them. Many of those descendents have the gene but over the last centuries the ability to use the gene is getting extremely weak. The Ancients gave the Lovans a device that would protect them against the Wraith; probably the device I saw in the center of town. He said the darts would come through the gate but they couldn't get close to the town, falling out of the sky if they did." Lorne took a breath and rested for a second.

"The Lovans thought they were invincible but one day, about four years ago the dart's started getting through the shield; the device was no longer working. The counselor said the Wraith punished them for being allies of the Ancients. They would come into the village and take child from parent or husband from wife and feed in front of the terrified family member, then tell the frightened people that they would be back for more of their loved ones, one by one. The Wraith told them that when they had fed on the last of their kind, they would destroy their planet. I don't think they realize the threat from the Wraith has been neutralized and we didn't tell them."

"They kept beating Colonel Sheppard to force him into telling where the Lantian's had gone; the idiots wanted revenge on the Ancients after they've been gone from here for 10,000 years. When he wouldn't tell them anything, they would hit him again and again; finally, they threatened to kill me if he didn't tell them what the wanted to know. "

Lorne took another deep breath and continued, "You know the colonel, that's all it took; he told them if they let me go, they would tell them what they wanted to know. I am not sure what those bastards would have done because just then I could hear P-90 fire getting closer. I heard someone yell from the hallway that the "Ancients" were attacking. The guys holding us tried to escape through a window but there wasn't enough time. Major Teldy and her team broke through the door and I can assure you, I wouldn't have wanted to be in her weapon's site." Lorne chuckled slightly and then winced. "She was clearly not amused."

Everyone around Lorne laughed at his description of Major Teldy; they had no doubts that the bad guys didn't have a chance, she was one tough Marine. Keller spoke up and ordered everyone out so that Major Lorne could get some much needed rest. Woolsey patted the major on the shoulder and left the infirmary.

_She knew he was waking up before the others did; his mind was reaching out for consciousness and she tried to guide him. Gently, she spoke to him, letting him know he was not alone. When she felt him respond, her elation soared and he reacted by sharing her joy in their connection_.

Dr. Keller was annoyed when she discovered that Rodney had moved his bed next to Colonel Sheppard's. She had barely finished Major Lorne's discharge paperwork when Rodney moved. She informed him that he needed to ask before he played musical beds; Rodney responded by staring at her without saying a word. As she walked away, she realized it would never matter to any of Colonel Sheppard's teammates what she wanted; when one of them was hurt, the others stayed. Kanaan was sitting next to Teyla's bed, their son, Toran asleep in his arms; Ronon was sitting in a wheelchair between McKay and Sheppard's beds. She looked toward Dr. Beckett's desk; he was asleep, his head on his arms. No, no one was leaving the infirmary until Colonel Sheppard woke up, including her.

When Dr. Jackson discharged Ronon, the doctor had insisted that he go to his quarters to rest. Ronon had parked the chair next to Sheppard's bed and simply glared at Jackson. The tall doctor decided a matching bruised jaw wasn't worth it and just walked away. Now, Ronon kept watch over Sheppard and Rodney who was now sitting in a chair next to Sheppard's bed. Ronon could tell the scientist was in pain but he would not give in to it; Sheppard was more important to him. Ronon was amazed at the growth he had seen in Dr. McKay since he arrived on Atlantis 5 years before.

At the beginning he had wondered what Sheppard had been thinking when he had placed McKay on his team; as far as he could tell, they spent more time protecting Rodney and getting him out of trouble than not. But Ronon also knew that they would have been dead many times over if McKay hadn't been with them. He just couldn't figure out what Sheppard had seen in Rodney from the beginning that made him recognize how valuable the annoying scientist would be to his team. He had asked Sheppard that question a couple of years ago while they were following a bickering McKay on a hot, dusty planet. Sheppard had motioned to Ronon to drop back, letting Teyla take the brunt of McKay's outburst.

Sheppard had just smiled as he answered Ronon, "Lots of people wondered what I was thinking when I tagged McKay for the team. Elizabeth for one, she had worked with McKay for many months and knew he didn't tolerate military types very well. Then she laughed and said, 'Well, you're certainly not typical military so maybe it will work.' I wasn't sure that was a complement but I took McKay on anyway."

Ronon grinned, "No, you are not typical." Sheppard gave the taller man a sharp glare which Ronon knew was a cover; Sheppard knew better than any of them that he was not a typical military guy.

"First of all, McKay was smart and I learned a long time ago that smarts can outweigh gun power in a pinch. Besides, he reminded me of a young airman that I had on my Ops team once. I was a captain at the time and he was a newly promoted corporal and he was scared to death. But he was smart and he didn't realize how brave he was because he was so scared; he didn't have confidence in himself. I knew that if he figured out that he could be smart and brave and that fear was not a sign of weakness, then he would be OK. There was horrible firefight in Iraq, we were pinned down and cut off from the rest of the squad; I had hurt my leg and wasn't very mobile. He had to face his fears and used his brain to get us out of that mess alive and he did. He's now a major stationed at the Pentagon doing Intel. I just felt that McKay was like that lieutenant, he didn't realize that fear wasn't a sign of weakness; once he got over that, he would be good. He became the McKay we all know and love today."

At that moment, Teyla turned back to look at them, her eyes pleading for some help with the whining McKay. Sheppard picked up his pace and yelled to McKay, "Rodney, stop the whining, we are all miserable from the heat and dust." Looking over his shoulder at Ronon, "Some things never change."

Ronon roused from his thoughts hearing a groan from the direction of Sheppard's bed. Rodney was on his feet, stifling a cry of pain, and was standing next to Sheppard in a second.

"Hey, Sheppard, wake up." Looking up from Sheppard's face, he yelled, "Hey, medical people, need some help here!" at the top of his lungs.

"Rodney, shut up…my head hurts."

Startled, Rodney jumped and looked down at Sheppard. The colonel's green eyes were half-open but Rodney could tell he was looking at him. He retorted, "Colonel, nice to see you, too."

Ronon wheeled a bit closer and said, "Hey, buddy, welcome back." Just then, Beckett arrived, followed closely by Dr. Keller who shooed Ronon away from the colonel's bedside and Rodney back to bed.

The two doctors ran though some routine questions and ordered some tests. Sheppard remained awake for a few minutes listening to Rodney going on about what had happened on the planet and then drifted off to sleep again.

It was dark in the infirmary when he awoke again, the monitors and machines providing familiar background noise to his ears as did the snoring from the bed beside him. Raising his head, he could see Rodney asleep in the bed next to him, Teyla curled up asleep in a bed across the room, and Ronon slumped in a wheelchair next to his bed. He smiled, laying his head back on the pillows; he had never before felt this sense of belonging that he felt on Atlantis. He had spent his entire life running from ever becoming to close to anyone, but here, he was not alone. It was then that he sensed her; her thoughts reaching into his mind light a gentle breeze. He wasn't aware of when he had begun to be able to talk to her; one day, he had just been able to hear her in his head.

"_It is good to have you back. You are well."_

His mind connected with her, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"_I am glad; it is not the same without you here. The others cannot communicate with me the way you can." _

He smiled to himself as he thought, "I'm not very good at communicating. I think you're the one who makes this happen."

"_The others were worried about you; it is comforting to know that they will do anything to protect you."_

"I am lucky; I have them and I have you."

"_You will always have me."_

He wondered how she could be so certain. As he fell back asleep, he was comforted that his team and Atlantis were with him.

_The End…_


End file.
